The college was created from a true Virginian plantation in honor of a deceased child.

It employed a lot of local residents, most of whom were African-Americans. The cooks, the servers, the housekeeping staff, the gardeners.

99% of the students were white females from upper-middle and upper social strata, debutantes if you will.

I only saw respect from all of us toward the people who worked on behalf of the college. Some of us were lucky enough to become friends with them, calling each other by first names, giving long loving hugs upon our graduation. Having Carson give his big smile first thing in the morning and asking if I'd like some eggs was the best breakfast I could ask for. Chewing the fat with Nancy over the latest episode of All My Children.

Never ever did the N-word ever show up even in passing.

While the imagery of a plantation with many African-Americans working on it in a different capacity from the Antebellum South did make one pause, it was a new era. They were just as much a part of my college experience as the professors.

My father was an authoritarian by nature and expecting my mother and my sibs to do whatever he said without thinking.

Problem: I thought and I knew I couldn't trust his judgment. I transferred that distrust to other authority figures as teachers and principals. And I went through the hallways without a pass because the rules were meant for others who needed the rules, not me. Talked back to teachers. Argued logic and reason (unsuccessfully) with my parents any chance I could.

My father wanted me to have "intensive psychological therapy" which could have meant electroshock therapy, who knows? He mistook my rejection of his authority as arbitrary, (probably hormonal) and more toward Oppositional Defiant Disorder. He didn't listen to me and I seemed to make him extraordinarily angry.

You remember the scene in the producers room in "Tootsie" when Dustin Hoffman went off script and they all murmured "Uh oh"? That was my family when my father tried to order me around without thinking and I objected. Collective inhalation of breath and "Uh oh". My brother and sister begged me not to argue with him, but I had to address being told to do something that wasn't in my best interest, had to be followed without thinking, and usually was meant to keep me in place.

It didn't help that I was female as my father had this idea that women (in the Seventies) didn't argue back unless they were shrews or harridans or both. He really saw me as a threat to social order and dedicated himself to quashing me.

We were in a psychological death spiral until I went to college. He did resurrect the worst proclivities on the night before my graduation when he told me I couldn't move to D.C. to start a new life, being obnoxious in front of my friends.

My father's not a "bad guy" but like I said, he's authoritarian and he makes the rules. If anything, I learned to walk away from employers who remind me of him.

I've been the legal representative of a mother. All her children were removed three years ago by Child Welfare. One of the allegations is educational neglect. She may lose her parental rights and the kids adopted by the foster parents. We're in trial right now.

Because she kept her three eldest children out of public or private schools. The eldest couldn't go beyond "J" in his ABC's at age 8. Fortunately once the kids were in enrolled in school by social services, they not only caught up in months, but have continued to excel in their grades.

It's debatable how much culpability can be attributed my client as she lived under the thumb of her husband-abuser and was a victim of domestic violence. Whatever her husband said or wanted became the law. The kids watched television (including educational television) most of the time and she read them books. She wanted the kids to go to school and there were options. Although client and her husband withheld vaccinations on "religious grounds", the public school would have accepted the kids and they were poor enough to qualify for financial hardship scholarships at the local Catholic School. The father/husband/abuser just wanted to control the kids. (More likely he didn't want the kids in school to reveal the abuse going on in his house.)

Does my client regret her role in keeping the kids out of school? Sure, she does. The kids have been remediated and she'd put them in school if they are returned.

BTW, my client moved to another state 18 months after the children were removed, to escape her husband and go into hiding from him. She's gone to counseling, therapy for the DV. She's completed school herself and has received two certifications, one advanced, as an EKG technician. She was top of her class gradewise. And she's days away from getting a final divorce judgment from her estranged husband.

Alan “Big Al” Note couldn’t have asked for a better last day on Earth.

'Big Al' Note died hours after this photo was taken at a party he planned to celebrate his life. With him were his niece Jackie and her husband, Woody. There he was at the Rutherford Elks Lodge on a Sunday afternoon, surrounded by 130 people dear to him.

His two brothers and sister-in-law. Nieces and nephews. Old friends. Those in Rutherford who shared his zeal for civic involvement. His Ramsey High School teaching colleagues and former students.

All had been invited by Note himself, and all heard him announce what most already knew: that Note, a non-smoker, was dying of lung cancer.

-more-

He was my history teacher in high school. He's one reason why I'm here on DU.

In my career as a psychologist, I have talked with hundreds of people previously diagnosed by other professionals with oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, anxiety disorder and other psychiatric illnesses, and I am struck by (1) how many of those diagnosed are essentially anti-authoritarians, and (2) how those professionals who have diagnosed them are not.

Anti-authoritarians question whether an authority is a legitimate one before taking that authority seriously. Evaluating the legitimacy of authorities includes assessing whether or not authorities actually know what they are talking about, are honest, and care about those people who are respecting their authority. And when anti-authoritarians assess an authority to be illegitimate, they challenge and resist that authority—sometimes aggressively and sometimes passive-aggressively, sometimes wisely and sometimes not.

Some activists lament how few anti-authoritarians there appear to be in the United States. One reason could be that many natural anti-authoritarians are now psychopathologized and medicated before they achieve political consciousness of society’s most oppressive authorities

-snip-

Many people with severe anxiety and/or depression are also anti-authoritarians. Often a major pain of their lives that fuels their anxiety and/or depression is fear that their contempt for illegitimate authorities will cause them to be financially and socially marginalized; but they fear that compliance with such illegitimate authorities will cause them existential death.

Wall Street bankers are fuming about the prospect of paltry payouts come bonus time — and plan to go nuclear.

They’re taking their cues from their disgruntled brethren in London, who are eyeing lawsuits to regain their over-the-top pay. Here at Jefferies Group, a group of brokerage executives reportedly threatened management that they would walk away from the firm if their year-end compensation was not up to par with The Street.

This hubris is just the beginning of much more to come as the downtrodden banking industry gets ready to dole out the most meager bonuses since the 2008 financial crisis.

Big banks are hoarding some of their bonus pools in anticipation of complaints. And being proactive seems to be the plan.

Sheldon Gary Adelson (born August 6, 1933) is an American casino and hotel magnate. Adelson is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. Adelson vastly increased his net worth upon the initial public offering of Las Vegas Sands in December 2004. He is currently the 8th wealthiest American and 16th wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of $21.5 billion.

-snip-

Originally a Democrat, Adelson became a Republican as his wealth increased. "Why is it fair that I should be paying a higher percentage of taxes than anyone else?" he once asked. He began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labour unions at his Las Vegas properties.

The funding behind Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future, an independent political committee, offers an intriguing clue into the financial deep pockets backing Gingrich’s candidacy. This week, McClatchy revealed that American Solutions footed the $8 million bill for private jet charters while Gingrich weighed whether to enter the 2008 and 2012 presidential races. Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson was the biggest funder of American Solutions, contributing $7.65 million and rumored to have committed $20 million to a pro-Gingrich super PAC, a report denied by an Adelson spokesperson. Whether the report is true or not, the facts increasingly show that the billionaire casino magnate is a central figure in Newt Gingrich’s political career.

Sands Corporation CEO Sheldon Adelson is based in Las Vegas but has business and political interests in Macau, China and Israel. In Israel, Adelson’s importance stems from his close friendship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ownership of Israel HaYom, a free daily newspaper which supports Netanyahu’s Likud party. Back in the U.S., Adelson sits on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition and is outspoken about his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.